A Scatterd Flame
by jayfeather767
Summary: Roman has escaped the chaos of Vale during the fall of Beacon. Now presumed dead and on his own, he must attempt to find Neo and recover what little he still cares about in this cruel world.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello anybody and everybody! This is my first fan-fiction. Ever. In fact it's probably the first story I've willingly written down. I expect it to be pretty rough around the edges, though I think I've edited things decently well. I would absolutely love it if you guys could leave a review, especially ones giving advice on what I'm doing wrong, what I'm doing right, and how you think I could improve my writing!**

 **I'm not entirely sure if this is how others put in their author's notes or whatever, but it's my first time posting anything to the site and this was all I could think of to get them in, if you know of a better way please tell me.**

 **Well, that's all I have for this author's notes thingy. The story is going to start off a tad slow, but the plot should pick up within the first few chapters. Let me know what you guys think!**

"As for me, I'll do what I do best..." Roman's voice echoed coldly as he stalked towards Ruby.

This wasn't how things were supposed to go. Cinder had shown up and ruined everything, then to make it worse Red had shown up again and again and made his life a living hell. Cinder had almost incinerated Neo right in front of him after the Paladin incident, and had only been saved when Roman convinced her just how useful Neo was and that he wouldn't make another stupid mistake. Over and over again Red's heroics had nearly cost Roman and Neo their lives, but this...this was another level. She had sent Neo flying off into that swirling abyss of Griffons and Nevermores'. The only person he cared about anymore was off in those dangerous skies, terrified and alone. He was done. He'd let Red off easy before, after all she was just a kid, not all that different than himself at that age. Just trying to do the right thing. Not anymore though. Red was not making it off this ship alive, not after all the shit she put them through.

"... lie, steal, _cheat_ , and SURVIVE!"

Suddenly the world was dark. He remembered hearing a roar as he was about strike down Red, and then a glimpse of a boned beak. But now the world was nothing but darkness; choking, stifling darkness. He could still feel Melodic Cudgel in his hand, but he couldn't think properly enough to use it. Where was he? Why was it so hard to breathe? Which way was up? He could feel himself growing more tired with each passing second, his aura slipping away bit by bit by this crushing darkness.

Suddenly everything lurched forward.

The darkness all around him started to dissipate, wisps of darkness trailing into the air steadily being replaced by the world that he knew. A world ablaze.

Roman collapsed onto the floor, still gripping his cane with a death-grip. Looking around, he realized he was back inside the bridge of his commandeered Atleasian ship. Only this time everything was on fire and a giant hole above his head gave him a pretty good idea of how he got back in here.

That was about the time the smoke stung his eyes, throat and nostrils.

"Fuck, ah, where the hell!?" Sputtering and coughing so much he felt like he was hacking up a lung, he staggered out of the bridge and down a corridor before arriving to a significantly less smoke filled room.

He immediately ran to the window and looked out it, confused as it seemed that the lights of Vale looked strange and slanted.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me." Roman pulled off his hat and wiped the sweat of his forehead as he gazed out the window of the very large ship that was currently pitching down directly towards Vale.

Explosions could be heard rocking across the ship, but Roman merely stood looking out the window pinching the bridge of his nose.

"One fucking day is all I ask! I've been out of prison for a couple hours and this is the shit you throw at me?!" He yelled at nothing, thinking he'd lose it.

Well, he lost something, but it wasn't his sanity this time. Just his footing.

Slamming onto the cold hard metal he cursed as the ship continued to pitch down towards a soon to be fatal crash.

Hooking his cane onto a nearby table that was welded onto floor, he used his other hand to hold his hat onto his head. "Never thought I'd see the day where I was thankful for military standard anything, let alone a goddamn table".

He quickly took note of his aura levels, and realized that his plan was even riskier than he had first thought. The figures 30% blinked red on his scroll. Using his semblance to move as far as he wanted was already going to be exhausting, but at that level of aura he might use up the rest of it completely.

"Well, not like I have much of a choice," he muttered as he watched Vale grow closer out the window.

Figuring that he was close enough by now and that he couldn't wait much longer, he squeezed his eyes shut and pictured the spot he had in mind.

He gasped as his hands and knee's suddenly slammed into the concrete of Vale's streets. A wave of nausea washed over him as he struggled to stand up with heavy assistance from his cane. Looking up he watched as the ship he had just been on crashed with a violent explosion into Vale a dozen blocks away or so.

"For fucks sake, can this day get any worse?!" Roman groaned as his rhetorical question was answered by the growl of a Beowolf.

Spinning around with Melodic Cudgel in hand, he quickly pointed the muzzle at the beast that had just rounded the corner of the hardware store he was standing outside of. He briefly hoped that the sounds of screaming, fires, explosions and fighting that echoed all throughout Vale would be enough to cover the sound of his flare. He then pulled the trigger as the Beowolf began its charge towards him. The signature scream of his deadly flares echoed around him as his cane launched an unstable dust flare right into the beast, and it promptly disintegrated into nothing but black mist.

Breathing out a sigh, he checked his aura and realized he was running on fumes. "Three percent? Dammit, I knew teleporting so far was going to be rough but that's more than I thought."

Glancing around to make sure he was safe for the moment, he quickly dashed down road and hung a right onto a larger street before being greeted by an unwelcome sight.

Civilians ran in different directions, all trying to escape the Grimm that tore through the streets of Vale. Several buildings had their doors torn off and a few had flames bursting out of them. Atleasian soldiers and Vale police officers stood in scattered groups of 2 or 3, desperately trying to save as many as they could while shooting at any Grimm that drew too close. He watched as an Ursa trampled right over a man in a suit on its way over to a lone Atleasian soldier who was frantically firing his rifle at the beast, only to be promptly torn in half by a large clawed paw.

"Cinder what the fuck?!" Roman spat as he crushed a creep with the crook of his cane. He knew the bitch was crazy, and he knew that she was probably going to be causing some chaos on her quest for whatever lay inside Beacon, but he definitely wasn't expecting this level of chaos.

"Ok, ok, think Roman. Think" He muttered anxiously as he ducked behind a wall. "Find Neo then get the fuck out of Vale."

Where could he go for the moment though? Only one place came to mind.


	2. Chapter 2

45 minutes of running through Vale, sneaking past Grimm, police, military and Huntsmen alike, and Roman finally found himself standing outside of Junior's club.

Sprinting through the door, Roman skidded to a stop just inside the club and cupped his mouth. "JUNIOR! GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE!"

Taking a moment to look around the place, he noticed that since he was last here the place had sustained quite a bit of damage. His first guess would have been a massive Grimm attack, especially considered the state of Vale at the moment, but the damage looked like it had already been partially fixed. What the hell had Junior been up to?

The giant man stepped out of a side room a moment later looking angry. "Who the fuck is calling? I swear on my mother's grave, Blondie, if that's you again I'm going to flip my shi- Torchwick?" The man's expression quickly changed from angry to confused. " I thought you were in prison?"

"Junior, in case you hadn't noticed, the city is falling apart, Grimm are everywhere and those Atleasian ships that I was being held in are scattered all across the kingdom in flaming wreckage, and yet _I'm_ the strangest thing you've seen today?!" Roman snarked as he gestured dramatically.

"Where's Neo?" He questioned as he ignored Roman's antics.

Roman's face grew solemn before he responded. "I don't know. We got separated and I'm trying to find her." Roman shoulders slumped down as he plopped into a seat at the bar.

With a glance at his watch, Junior made his way over to the bar as well and poured them both a glass of whiskey.

"What about your business partner?" Junior asked as he brought his glass to his lips.

Roman laughed before taking a sip of his own drink, grimacing at the flavor. "I think she believes I'm dead, thank god." He took another swig before continuing "That bitch would probably kill me herself if I showed up again."

"Well my boys are assisting the hunters in keeping the Grimm out of this section of the city, I'll have them keep an eye out for Neo. In the meantime, you need to get going." Roman flashed Junior a glance before Junior continued. "Your still wanted by the entire city, and I'm sure with all that's going on some hunter will just try to kill you and say the Grimm did it after this thing blows over." A distant, inhuman screech echoed from outside. " _If_ this thing blows over" Junior corrected himself.

They took another few minutes to just take relax and sip their drinks, knowing full well that this could be their last drink. Each catching the other up on what they had been doing in past months. Apparently the damage to Junior's club was caused by that blonde bimbo that destroyed his paladin, Red's sister if he remembered correctly. And it happened the night he borrowed Junior's men no less. Go figure.

Suddenly a loud screech filled the air along with a large _boom_ that shook the room. Both men glanced at each other before grabbing their weapons and racing outside, Junior's glass crashing to the ground behind him as he knocked it off the counter in his haste.

Outside a disturbing sight caught their eyes. A giant Grimm dragon was circling the air over Beacon, and the tower had partially collapsed. The beast was horrific and gargantuan, a thing of nightmares. Roman recognized it from when the thing had flown past his hijacked ship. There was no doubt in his mind that Cinder was behind this monstrosity as well.

"Holy shit..." Junior breathed.

"That psychotic bitch, how did she manage to attract that... _thing?_ " Roman muttered, his eyes never leaving the creature.

A minute passed with both men just staring at the sight before roars brought them to their senses. Spinning around to see a pack of Beowolves and Ursa charge down the street, both men began cursing as they started firing explosives at the pack. Quite a few died immediately, but many more were still barreling down the road in a careless frenzy. Suddenly a blinding light from behind them forced them to shut their eyes, while the Grimm screeched in agony. Moments later, the men opened their eyes to see the Grimm in front of them still screaming and milling about in confusion. Jumping on the opportunity they quickly dispatched the rest of the beasts.

"Well, that was fun," Roman quipped while Junior shot him a glare. "But I think it's time I go".

Junior nodded in agreement. After that light, he was sure the city would soon be under some level of control. That would make it harder for Roman to get out as people started to calm down and recognize him. "I'll get you a message somehow if I hear anything about Neo" He assured Roman. "But where are you headed?"

Roman paused for a moment. "Mistral. That's where Neo would head if she we got separated and Vale wasn't safe anymore." He glanced up at Nevermore that flew past far overhead. "I'd say this counts as 'unsafe', don't you think?"

After the statement, Roman smoothed his coat, straightened his back and started off down the street.

"Your just going to walk?!" Junior exclaimed.

"No, I'm gunna take a cab" Roman rolled his eyes as he turned to face Junior. "The CCT is down, I'm a wanted man and the route to Mistral isn't exactly car friendly. I don't have a lot of options here Junior."

Junior sighed briefly " Well good luck out there."

Roman just turned and started off back down the road again. "Send me any information you find out about Neo" he called back.

Roman sighed internally. _'Where are you Neo?'_ Roman glanced up with a the slightest hint of despair, then continued on, his cane softly clacking against the sidewalk. _'Stay safe'_ He silently urged her.


	3. Chapter 3

" Shit, shit, shit!" Roman gasped between breaths as he sprinted down the path.

He had gotten out of Vale easily enough, and had traveled with little resistance for the past week, only having to occasionally kill off small groups of Grimm. By the time he was closing in on the the second town on his route, however, he'd been ambushed by a large pack. Normally it wouldn't be too much of a problem, but he was worn down from traveling and he was running low on dust rounds. Glancing behind him he saw that the pack was still right on his tail.

He put his head down and pushed himself to go even faster, his shoes crunching on the gravel path. With his other hand he held down his hat. He was not going to lose that thing, it was his favorite hat for fucks sake and he wasn't about some stupid murderous beasts take it from him. "Not again you fuckers" He gasped out as he continued to just barely outrun the Grimm "I'm not on the fucking menu!"

Suddenly from ahead he heard someone shout "DUCK!"

Instincts taking over, Roman immediately dived into a roll, narrowly dodging an energy round that hit the closest Beowolf behind him. Looking ahead while still running he saw a group of four people, clearly hunters, aiming their weapons at the pack behind him. He made his way to them, despite his criminal mind screaming at him not to, and slid in between a black haired man and a brown haired woman.

The black haired man wore a look of stoic determination and was wielding a halberd that seemed to have a barrel protruding from the tip. The brown haired woman had long straight hair that reached to about her shoulders blades, was about average build, and wielded two clawed gauntlets. Both were in battle stances and covered for Roman.

The two hunters immediately killed the Grimm that were directly behind Roman. Meanwhile, Roman continued his slide while turning around and bringing himself to gradual halt with his knee to the ground and Melodic Cudgel aimed at the beasts that were charging towards the hunters. Two blasts from his cane engulfed two Beowolves and an Ursa, killing them instantly.

Rising up from his kneeling position, Roman dashed back towards the fight and swatted a creep with enough force to crack it's skull. Two different huntsmen joined the fray and soon the creatures were nothing but fading mist.

Roman was leaning on his cane and catching his breath when the the brown haired woman spoke up. "Seems you had yourself a fan-club there, sorry we had to break them up for you" she joked.

Roman glanced up in surprise. They hadn't recognized him. A grin spread across his face. Perfect. Without missing a beat he responded with smirk "I don't know, seems I've gained a new fan-base. I have to say, you guy's are much prettier than the last group."

"So what brings you to little Aclerwood?" One of the other hunters spoke up. A large bald man in plate armor wielding what looked like a war hammer of some sort.

Deciding to go with a partial truth, Roman responded simply "I'm from Vale and I'm on my way to Mistral."

The fourth huntsmen finally spoke up, a small woman with red hair, a petite build and a large assortment of blades. She had throwing knives dangling off her combat vest, and two large daggers were strapped to her outer thighs. She would almost looking threatening if she didn't have a large stupid grin adorning her face and a very bubbly personality to match it.

"Really?! Then you must know what happened! We've been away on a mission for several months and haven't been to Vale in over a year, but when we arrived in Aclerwood yesterday we were told that the communications are down and no one in the town knows what happened other than a girl died during the Vytal festival!" The little woman paused to finally take a breath. "Or at least that's all anyone will tell us".

Roman took in the information quickly. If they hadn't been around for over a year then they probably didn't recognize him because that was right about the time he started getting publicity due to Cinders plans. He may have been a big in the crime business, but he knew how to keep his head down and mostly out of the public eye before Cinder decided to change that. He quickly frowned and decided to tell them a basic synopsis.

"Well, some sort of attack was made on Vale during the festival. It was well organized and big, bringing a giant Grimm invasion along with the White Fang. The school was targeted by the terrorists most heavily, and the CCT fell. From what I gathered the school was lost, though Vale is more or less under control."

The group just stared at him. "...Beacon's...gone?" The brown haired one asked with a quavering voice.

"I'm afraid so. I got separated from my partner, but we know to rendezvous in Mistral as a backup plan, so that's where I'm headed." At least he hoped that's where Neo was headed, he still wasn't even sure that she was alive, but he had to cling to hope.

The group deflated at all the bad news. Suddenly the smaller woman with the knives looked up. "You said your partner, what about the rest of your team?"

Roman didn't look phased, easily crafting another lie. "After graduation we didn't stay together as a team. Me and my partner stuck together though."

The answer satisfied her, though she quickly got another look on her face. "Oh! Pardon me, I forgot to introduce myself! I'm Flannery! This is team Finn!"

"I'm Henry" The large bald man added with a friendly nod.

"Hazel" The brown haired woman said with smile, though she still seemed shaken by the news of Vale.

"Noah" Said the black haired man with a solemn nod.

Roman paused for a moment. How did they get Finn out of FHHN?

He gave up trying to understand and put on his most convincing smile "I'm Roman, nice to meet you guys."


	4. Chapter 4

The walk back to Aclerwood was fairly short, but to Roman every minute was agonizing.

"-and that's when a massive deathstalker showed up, I mean it was HUGE. Like the size of 4 buildings!" Flannery interrupted Roman's thoughts with the exact cause of his distress.

"It was a normal deathstalker." Noah calmly corrected in a flat voice.

"That's when Henry fell from the sky and destroyed the thing in one mighty swing!" Flannery continued as if she didn't hear her teammate. Her eyes were sparkling as she bounced around Henry recalling his heroics.

Roman had to actively repress an eye twitch as he walked ahead of the other three with Hazel. "Is she always like this" He grumbled to the woman next to him.

"Just around Henry. So yea, basically." Hazel said with an eye roll.

 _'Well if I'm going to have to deal with those lovebirds, I might as well make use of it'_ Roman hummed to himself as he pondered the situation.

Suddenly he dropped back and popped between Flannery and Henry, grabbing them both by the shoulders and plastering a big grin on his face.

"Well aren't you two just the cutest couple!" He said with a laugh as Henry grew bright red and Flannery started tripping over her words.

"We're not – like together, I mean we're just, um friends, just friends!" Flannery blundered as she too flushed bright red.

Meanwhile Roman deftly lifted a good stack of lien out of her pockets without anyone's notice, he just continued to smile wider and pulled the two teammates closer into his grasp. "Awww, really? You two are are so cute together though!"

Getting what he came for, Roman gave one last laugh and let the two go, making his way back up to Hazel. Henry and Flannery were still bright red and fumbling over their words, while Hazel was giggling at the sight. Even Noah had cracked a smile at his teammates embarrassed faces.

No sooner had he got back up to Hazel when they reached Aclerwood. It was a decent sized town, though tiny compared to the kingdoms. The houses were mostly one or two stories high made out of very beautiful looking wood. Obviously Aclerwood had made decent money because it seemed fairly wealthy compared to many towns outside of the kingdoms. As they made their way down through the main part of town a couple inns and shops popped up before him. Things looked unusually nice compared to many towns, though you could still tell you were outside of the kingdom with the shops being only practical ones like hardware, dust, and groceries and the roads being cracked up concrete.

"This place seems unusually nice for being out of the kingdoms," Roman commented as they made their way to the inn the others said they had been staying at.

"Yea, Aclerwood is larger than most towns around here and provides Vale with the majority of their luxury lumber, not to mention quite a few other services. Between that, and the fact that it's still protected by many of the same natural barriers as Vale and this place has thrived." Hazel explained.

Soon they reached the Inn. Roman fished the lien he stole from Flannery out of his pockets, and handed the same girl a few of her own bills. "Hey, do you think you could run and get me some dust rounds from the local shop? I'm almost out from traveling and I'm going to stay here and buy myself a room."

In truth, he was already taking a big enough risk buying a room. The dust shop would be even more dangerous, as the owner may have been warned about Roman's robberies earlier this year.

"Sure!" Flannery grabbed the bills that were previously hers and skipped out of the inn with an obnoxious amount of enthusiasm.

Rolling his eyes at the girl, Roman spun around and walked confidently up to the manager, while the other three migrated towards the bar. Flashing a smile to the woman behind the desk he put more of Flannery's lien on the counter. "Hey there, mind if I take a room for the evening?"

He continued to hide his nervousness behind a charming smile as the woman took the lien and smiled back at him "You have a good stay" She said with a wink as she handed him a key.

Breathing a small sigh of relief at escaping recognition, he made sure to keep his head down anyway as he made his way to the others. _'Not that it would help much"_ he thought to himself as he glanced at his very noticeable ginger bangs.

Taking a seat next to Noah, he waved the bartender off as the man came over to take his request. He didn't trust this town or these people enough to drink yet.

"So what are you guys up to next since you finished your mission?" Roman asked casually as he swung an arm behind his seat and kicked up his feet onto the bottom of Noah's seat.

Glancing at each other, Henry spoke for them "Well, about that. We were wondering if we could maybe tag along with you for a little while."

Raising an eyebrow, Roman kept himself looking mostly disinterested as he responded breezily "Oh? I thought you guys would head for Vale to see it for yourselves."

Noah spoke up for a change this time, face as unreadable as ever."We determined that there was little we could do there, and decided we would like to help you instead."

He didn't like this one bit. It was only a matter of time before something went wrong. Besides, he was already wary of Noah. The kid was a hard read.

Roman maintained his relaxed and indifferent demeanor though. "Sure," he shrugged "Not a problem for me". He imagined as hunters that they would just follow him anyway if he refused, or at least ask around about him. Better to keep your enemies closer, if only for a little while.

Just then, Flannery skipped back in, presenting Roman with plenty of dust for his cane. He could craft his usual concussion and explosive rounds with the kinds of dust she brought him. He figured he would make himself a couple new types of rounds soon, when he had access to more kinds of dust. "Thanks fireball" He said to the girl.

"Huh?" Flannery gave him a confused look.

Before he could respond Hazel spoke up again "Cool, so when do we leave?"

Flannery quickly picked up what was going on "He said yes? She said with an excited bounce, one of her throwing knives jangling and almost falling off her vest at the sudden movement.

Roman responded with a nod before explaining "Well, I figured we could rest up here for the night, then head out first thing in the morning. Sound good?"

"That's fine with us" Henry said with a nod.

"Course' it is." Roman responded as he sat up. " So how old are you kids anyways, you look a bit young."

"We graduated from Haven two years ago. We did some work around Mistral, then went to Vale. We took a few small jobs around the kingdom before taking this last assignment that took us forevvveerrrrrrr." Flannery piped up.

"To answer your question, we're all either 22 or 23" Noah said with a sigh, visibly annoyed with Flannery going off on a tangent.

"Well kids, hope you're ready for quite the trip" Roman chuckled as he stood up. "I'll see you guys in the morning" he said over his shoulder as he walked towards his room.

 _'This is going to be interesting'_ Roman thought, already going over different plans in his head. _'Very interesting indeed'_


	5. Chapter 5

Less than an hour later, team FHHN were lounging around their room. Flannery was hanging upside down off one bed, while Hazel sat on the other. Noah had taken a seat on a chair, while Henry claimed the tiny couch to himself.

"So what do you guys think of him?" Hazel inquired.

"He seems nice enough, though a bit rude from time to time." Henry smiled widely "I like him, this will be fun."

"He's fun! A bit weird though," unlike the others, Flannery didn't see the irony in her own words as she flailed her arms trying to maintain her balance on the edge of the bed.

"I like him well enough. He's got style, that's for sure." Hazel shrugged after throwing in her two cents.

"There's something he still isn't telling us though," Noah spoke up, drawing the others attention.

"What makes you say that? He seems pretty cool to me. I'd just prefer not to always be on the end of his teasing." Henry huffed, a little indignant about his earlier embarrassment.

Noah just shrugged in response "Just a feeling I get."

Flannery paused, now balancing on the headstand of the bed "Well I get the feeling that your trying to be all mysterious and stuff again"

Noah opened his mouth to respond but was cut off as pillow flew past his head, hitting Flannery square in the face. Struggling to maintain her balance, she flapped her arms frantically before crashing down to the floor with a loud squeal. Henry, on the other hand, was laughing so loudly that Noah was pretty sure the neighbors would be putting in complaints.

"HENRY!" Flannery shouted as she jumped up, her face bright red. "WHAT THE HELL!"

Henry was still laughing hard enough that he couldn't answer the girl even if he wanted to, but was cut off as a pillow smothered his face upon landing. Soon pillows were flying back and forth between the two.

Hazel sighed and shared an amused glance with Noah as another pillow flew across her line of sight, Flannery was yelling something about vengeance and retribution while Henry shielded himself behind a chair that he picked up from the little table in the corner of the room.

"Hey guys, I think we should probably get-" Noah didn't get to finish his comment before being knocked off his chair by one of Flannery's pillows that had flown far off course.

Hazel watched with wide eyes as Noah stood up slowly with a pillow in hand. "Oh shit"

* * *

Roman watched from his seat on the bench outside the inn as the light went out in the window of his "friends" room. That had taken longer than he expected it to. It probably had something to do with the multiple pillows and other various objects he had watched fly across what little of the room he could see. Those kids were definitely going to be asleep pretty soon if the hour long fight was anything to go off of.

He pulled out the cigar he had swiped from the convenience store down the road. That poor cashier had been too busy worrying about helping Roman find an item they didn't carry to notice that he stole a small box of the sweet scented cigars from their place behind the counter while the man had led Roman around the store. The guy should really consider purchasing a security camera, or at least a second employee to help him with the night shift.

Flicking his signature lighter out from his coat and letting the flames dance on the tip of the cigar for a moment before tucking away the lighter, Roman glanced around to see the streets almost entirely empty. Taking a puff of his cigar and making the tip glow faintly, Roman sat and waited.

After another hour and a half he figured the kids would be asleep, especially after the raucous they made before bed. Standing up, he took one last puff of the cigar before tossing it on the ground and crushing it under the tip of his shoe. With the scroll service out due to the fall of the CCT, he couldn't use his leverage in the underground world to find anything out about the kids. That just left the old fashioned way. Steadying his breath to a barely audible breeze, he pictured the spot just inside their room. A fraction of a second later he used his semblance to appear inside the room.

He hated taking risks like this. He had always made sure to keep his semblance unknown, and this was much more forward than he usually was with it. Neo was the only living person who knew his semblance, and he preferred to keep it that way. _'Always keep an ace up your sleeve Neo'_ He had told her when she asked him about his secrecy. In fact the only time he had used his semblance the entire time he was working under Cinder was during the fight with the paladin. After those girls had destroyed the paladin, Neo had dropped down. She set up one of her illusions and he had teleported them out of there under the guise of her illusion. He had made sure not to use it around Cinder, she had enough power as it was, letting her know all of their cards would have been a death sentence.

Glancing around the room, he noticed a fort made of chairs and a table in one corner of the room, a lamp leaning precariously against the nightstand, and Flannery was snoring atop a pile of discarded sheets, blankets and pillows on the floor. Jesus, she had every single pillow in the room under her. The others were using their hands, spare articles of clothing, or the rolled up bed sheets for pillows. Roman shook his head, he didn't even want to know.

After seeing the kids were in fact dead asleep, he got to work. With dead silence gained from years of experience, he sifted through their belongings quietly and efficiently. Hairbrush, spare clothes, weapon cleaning supplies, wait, was that a stuffed animal in Henry's bag? Nothing he was looking for.

 _'Here we go'_ He felt triumphant as he pulled out a diary. Hazel's, if the front saying "HAZEL'S DIARY: DO. NOT. TOUCH. (That means you too Henry!)" was anything to go by.

Glancing at the kids once again, he meticulously put everything else back exactly as he had found it. Tomorrow would be busy enough that he suspected she wouldn't notice it was gone until at least tomorrow evening. He would have it back by then... or maybe he would just keep it and let her worry about losing it.

 _'I can't believe I'm using a girl's diary as my primary source of information'_ he thought to himself as he quietly teleported back into his room. ' _Well, time to get to work'_

He settled onto his bed and opened the diary, easily picking the small lock it had on it. The first thing to greet him inside the diary was what looked like a child's drawing, complete with stick figures holding up a large sign that said HAZEL'S DIARY and a sun peeking out of the corner of the paper with a smiley face drawn onto it.

…...This was going to be a long night.

* * *

 **Hi guys! In this chapter you see Roman using the semblance I gave him in this story again. I tried to use cannon to make something that might be plausible. With Neo having illusions I figured Roman having teleportation or a blink ability of sorts would work well. Criminal partners that together make perfect escape artists for heists and such. That's all I really had to say about this one, I'll see you guys again next chapter! (It'll probably be put up in the next day or two.)**

 **Thanks to everyone who stopped by!**


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning, Roman was lounging in the lobby drinking his coffee when team FHHN finally came stumbling down the stairs. "Oh look, you guys _are_ alive. I was beginning to think you guys died in your sleep and I'd have to make the journey on my own."

Henry let out a huge yawn before answering. "It's 7 in the morning Roman."

"And I knocked on your door telling you guys to be down in the lobby in 10 minutes over an hour ago," Roman retorted "What's your point?"

"Why do we have to be up so early" Flannery whined

Roman simply rolled his eyes and stood up "C'mon kids, what kind of huntsmen are you? Let's move!"

Leading the sleepy team outside, he started strolling down the street. He was just as tired, if not more so, than the team of hunters. He sure as hell wasn't going to let them know that though. "Kick it into high gear kids! We haven't got all day!" He yelled as the others lagged behind.

His only answer was a chorus of groans. Roman smiled to himself. This was going to be a good day.

* * *

Several hours later, they were walking along the path through the woods, and Roman was no longer optimistic about the day.

The wide expanse of trees on either side of the path, while beautiful, seemed to trap the heat in. The sweltering heat made him feel like he was going to burst into flames. For fucks sake, it was autumn! Shouldn't it be getting colder? Actually, that whole burst into flames tangent reminded him of a time where he actually witnessed that. Poor Jim, how was that goon supposed to know that Cinder "had heard that stupid joke a hundred times"?

To make the trip even more miserable, apparently Flannery had woken up completely. Her endless chatter had started up about an hour ago, and Roman wasn't even sure that she had taken a breath yet. Henry was enjoying talking to the energetic girl, Noah just walked on and seemed to not care, and Roman was quickly losing patience. Hazel was the only one who seemed to share his pain. He could see his own annoyance reflected on her face as she tried to ignore Flannery's incessant talking.

"You wouldn't happen to have a gag on you, would you?" Hazel muttered to Roman as she shot a glare towards the loud and raucous Flannery.

"I wish." Roman groaned as Flannery continued to loudly tell Henry about her dream.

"Then the giant golden lemur told me that to save them, I must find all four rings and destroy them once and for all!" She exclaimed excitedly.

"So wait, a giant lemur statue gave you a quest to save humanity?" Henry questioned

"Don't egg her on" Hazel groaned.

Flannery just continued like Hazel hadn't spoke "Yep! And then he swallowed me whole and on his inside there was a control panel that I used to fly him all the way to Atlas and then- _mhmsnhmm"_ Her last few words were cut off as Roman slapped his gloved hand over her mouth.

"Hey! I was listening to that story!" Henry exclaimed before Roman shushed him.

Hazel looked like she was about to start crying tears of joy at the silence.

"Quiet you idiots! Listen!" Roman whispered urgently.

All four of the hunters stiffened up and grew very quiet as they stopped to listen to whatever Roman had heard.

After a few moments they heard it as well. A faint rustling from within the thick foliage. The hunters and Roman all drew slightly closer to each other, alert for danger.

"That doesn't sound like Grimm" Noah whispered.

No sooner had he finished saying that when a group of about 10 people leaped from the trees on either side of them, all brandishing small arms like pistols and swords. They looked like a bunch of thugs that Roman would hire when he needed a group of idiots for some sort of suicidal task, muscled idiots who thought they could break through any obstacle or person in their path.

Immediately Roman deflected a sword slash aimed at his face with Melodic Cudgel, then hooked the blade with the crook of his cane and jerked it out of his assailant's grasp. The grizzled man quickly recovered his footing and swung a left hook at him, but Roman took a quick side step before grabbing the arm, twisting it into an awkward angle and cracking his cane against the man's shin before smashing the man's face in with the handle of his cane. As the first man went down, a second ran at him and took a large swing at Roman's chest. Roman calmly took a step back from the swing, before quickly parrying two more strikes. Seeing an opportunity, Roman flashed a fist towards the man after deflecting a sloppy slash that left the man wide open. The second bandit, a man wearing a black half mask, widened his eyes right before Roman's fist cracked his neck back and broke his nose. Stumbling back and holding his nose, the bandit looked up just in time to see the tip of a cane collide with his forehead. Roman prepared himself for another attack, but none came. Looking around he saw that his companions had just as easily handled their attackers, several unconscious bodies scattered across the ground.

"Was that it?" Flannery asked as she spun around and looked for another enemy.

Suddenly Hazel dashed past the other girl, sprinting at the last standing bandit who was running away down the path. Looking over his shoulder, the man saw the huntress closing in on him. Making a decision, he spun around to swing at her with his sword. Hazel easily deflected the blow with her clawed gauntlets before retracting the blades on her right hand and grabbing the man's face. She then threw him back towards the group, where he landed heavily right in front of Henry. Any further thoughts of escape he had evaporated as he looked up and saw the hunter glaring down at him with his large war hammer.

"Where do you think you going?" Henry grinned at the shaking bandit.

Soon they all stood around the lone conscious bandit.

"Oh calm down," Roman told the man irritably. "We won't kill you. Probably"

The man visibly paled as Roman laughed. "Oh boy, isn't this fun? So who is your little group and why did you attack us?"

After an audible gulp, he spoke up in a shaky voice "We figured we could make some lien by ambushing people along this path, been set up here for 2 days."

Roman couldn't help feel disappointed. Flannery voiced his thoughts "That's it? I was hoping for something bigger, like some big conspiracy or something."

On second thought, simple was good. He'd had enough giant conspiracies for a lifetime.

"Well, that's a shame" Roman commented before promptly cracking the man over the head with Melodic Cudgel. Before the man's body could even hit the ground, Roman was already starting off down the path again at a leisurely pace.

"Shouldn't we take them in?" Noah asked.

Roman just shrugged. "I don't particularly like the idea of of carrying a bunch of thugs to the next town. This beating should be enough to discourage them from trying this again, at least for now. We can report it to the police in the next town." He had no intention of doing so though. Why would he waste his time with these thugs? He would've just killed them if he didn't have to keep a decent image for these hunters.

As they started off down the path, Roman couldn't shake his suspicion that something else was going on here. In his line of business, you never accepted something as "coincidence". That's how you ended up dead. He was sure that someone had set up those thugs there, in the hopes of stopping someone. To be on the safe side, he would assume that it was to stop him until he had evidence saying otherwise. Still, whoever set that up wasn't very bright if they thought that pitiful bunch would stop him.

 _'Just one more thing to keep an eye on'_ He sighed to himself. Nothing was ever simple.

Roman pulled out his map, glancing it over before speaking up. "Lets just keep moving, there's another small town just ahead."


	7. Chapter 7

After almost a week of traveling and going through small towns and they had finally reached their destination.

"Finally!" Flannery exclaimed as they walked past a sign that said " **Welcome to Port Sanus."**

Hazel was busy reading the map. "Looks like this town should give us ferry access to the continent of Anima." She said as she looked up to the group, a little more reserved than Flannery but still clearly happy to be here.

Port Sanus was a very large port town, getting good business with travel to Anima as well as trade between the continents made it an important location, it was easily twice the size of Aclerwood and much more developed. It had its own protective wall around the city, roads, sidewalks, cars, a wide variety of shops, entertainment areas, and even an academy that aspiring hunters could go to before they shipped off to one of the four main academies. Port Sanus was the largest city on Sanus outside of Vale. He needed to be careful here, people were definitely going to recognize him if he wasn't careful.

"I say we stay here for a few days, relax and prepare ourselves before we head off to Anima. After all, there aren't really any other large cities between here and Mistral." Henry suggested

Roman looked over at the others and saw them nodding. "Aren't you guys staying here?"

The other four looked at him. "Oh. Um, we were going to accompany you to Mistral, remember?" Hazel said, slightly confused.

He had hoped they had truly meant it when they had said they were only going travel with him "for a bit". Still, he couldn't say he hadn't seen this coming. He couldn't travel with them much longer though, sooner or later someone would figure out who he was. Having them around when that happened was a bad idea.

Instead Roman just shrugged, doing his best to look indifferent. "You just said you wanted to travel with me. You didn't say how far."

"We're in this for the long haul." Henry said with a grin.

Wonderful.

"Alright, lets find an Inn" Roman responded with a smile that he hoped looked a lot less strained than it felt.

An hour later they were checking into the "Sanus Sunset Hotel". It was a decent hotel. Not too expensive, but still fairly nice as well. Clean rooms and decent service. It definitely beat sitting in that damn cell on Ironwood's ship.

He didn't show it, but Roman was nervous. He noticed a few people looking at him like they vaguely recognized him, and he knew it was only a matter of time before someone put two and two together. He needed to be out of this town soon.

"Hey Flannery, do you think you could do me a favor?" Roman asked on the way up to their rooms.

"Eh?" The girl suddenly gave him her attention "Whatchya need?"

"Do you think you could find a dust shop and pick these up for me? I want to stock up before we hit Anima." He asked as he handed her a piece of paper with several kinds of dust listed on it.

"Why do you need me to do this?" She inquired with a raised eyebrow.

He paused. He didn't have any excuse or legitimate reason for not going that he could give her. Honestly he had been hoping Flannery would just do it, she often seemed to just do what she what she was asked anyway.

"Eh, never mind. I'll go myself later." He said as he waved his hand dismissively.

"I'll go with you if you want." Hazel offered helpfully.

"Nah, its fine. I suppose I was just being lazy." He laughed as he waved to them and headed down the hall to his own room.

* * *

"Well that was weird." Flannery said looking to the others.

Henry just shrugged "Like he said, he felt lazy, tried to pawn off a task on you, then felt bad. We all do it from time to time. No big deal"

Noah nodded his head in agreement "Don't take it personally".

Hazel was still watching where Roman disappeared into his room down the hall, looking thoughtful, "Yea...don't worry about it Flannery".

Soon they all went into their room, Flannery and Henry already arguing playfully over who got which sleeping spot. Hazel glanced at Roman's room once more before closing the door.

* * *

Roman ran through ideas in his head as walked into his room. He couldn't just walk to a dust shop himself. At this point he was sure someone would recognize him. He could try robbing one after dark, that would definitely be fun, but that would attract unwanted attention as well. The others would be suspicious if he asked them to get some for him again, and probably wouldn't comply anyway.

Suddenly an idea dawned on him. Scroll service was down over long distances, but local service was still up.

"You'd better still be in the city" he muttered as he dialed a number.

His scroll rang once.

Twice.

A third time.

Finally someone picked up on the other side. "...Hello?" a hesitant voice asked, obviously not recognizing the number.

Roman smirked " Oh it's _so good_ to hear from you again" Roman said, voice dripping with sarcasm "And here I'd thought you might have forgotten me by now"

The voice on the other line shrank a bit "R-Roman?"

"I'm calling in my favors tonight, meet me in Sharone park, 10:30".

The other voice paused for a moment "Ok , do I nee-"

 _CLICK_.

He wasn't in the mood for chatting.

Roman's mind wandered while his hands prepared a list of what he needed. _'I hope this pays off.'_


	8. Chapter 8

Roman stalked down the dark streets of Port Sanus, a swagger in his step and a smirk on his face. Street lamps filled the sidewalks with blotches of light in between the darkness of the city.

Stepping into the park, Roman checked the time.

10:35 pm.

He was exactly 5 minutes late, that should put the man he was meeting on edge.

Perfect.

Nearing the meeting point, he slowed into a stroll, Melodic Cudgel clacking against the sidewalk rhythmically as he walked up to the man he was meeting with.

Sitting down next to the man and lighting a cigar, Roman was content to sit still and take a couple of puffs.

"W-weren't you locked up by Atlas after some attack on Vale a couple months back?" the wiry man with dark hair and a little stubble on his chin next to him stammered. His eyes danced nervously around the area though he still gave Roman his attention.

Roman took a another puff of his cigar, making the tip glow orange in the darkness. "I _was_ " Roman said with a smirk "But obviously since I'm here with you that didn't work out too well for them."

The man gulped "Did you take part in that whole Vale attack I saw on the news, the one that knocked out the CCT?"

Roman sighed, ignoring the question. "Ferris, we're here for a reason."

"Right! Sorry" Ferris wiped his forehead. "What did you need?"

Roman handed him a piece of paper, listing several kinds of dust.

Taking a moment to look it over, Ferris looked visibly relieved "That's it? Some dust?"

"Flip it over Ferris."

Ferris paled at what he read on the other side of the paper "Where am I supposed to get that much lien by tomorrow Roman?"

"Doesn't have to be yours. Just get it, though I would advise against anything stupid like a bank robbery." Roman drawled, still puffing on his cigar.

Ferris thought about it for a second then nodded. Then after reading the last item on the list he looked over at Roman once more, though more out of confusion. "What do you need that for?"

"Ah ah ah" Roman waggled his finger in Ferris's face "I'm afraid that's above your pay-grade."

Roman let out a chuckle before continuing. "Though since I'm a nice guy, I'll give you a little more friendly advice. Don't get caught when retrieving that information, or you'll end up dealing with people that are far less...reasonable."

Ferris simple nodded gravely.

"Well, that's it Ferris." Roman said as he stood up. "I'll tell you our next meeting place tomorrow at 9pm. Bring everything on that list to the meeting spot at 10 pm and all your favors will be paid off."

Ferris breathed a sigh of relief at that, got up, and walked in the opposite direction as Roman.

As Roman strolled back to the Inn, he sighed to himself. It was a shame to use up all his favors from Ferris like that. In this business favors were golden. In reality they were more like debts. It gave you leverage over someone, power. Nobody wanted to owe favors to Roman Torchwick, though many still did. _'It worked out though, this is probably the best use I have for Ferris anyways.'_

As he was finally made his way back to the Sanus Sunset Hotel, he saw something he wasn't prepared for. Or more accurately _someone_.

Hazel jogged across the sidewalk to meet him right in front of the hotel's entrance. "Hey Roman!"

"Oh! Hi Hazel, what are you doing out here?" Roman, still completely caught off guard, was essentially in conversational autopilot.

"Actually, I was waiting for you."

Shit.

In response he simply raised an eyebrow, prompting her to continue her explanation.

"I just saw you leave your room, I was gunna join you, but I didn't know where you went." She elaborated with a smile.

Roman flashed her a smile "Sorry, I didn't realize you wanted to tag along."

"It's fine. So where did you head off to?"

"Well I decided that I should go get that dust instead of pawning off the job to you guys. So I walked around to find a dust shop, but they all seemed closed. I was already out so I decided to see what Port Sanus has to offer" he accentuated his words with a sweep of his cane towards the shops, restaurants, and clubs that were glittering in the evening down the road.

"Cool! Find anything noteworthy?" Hazel said with just a little too much excitement.

He responded with a shrug "There's certainly plenty to see. You kids might like one of the clubs or maybe some window shopping."

Before she could ask anymore questions Roman spoke up again "Well nice to talk to you Hazel, I'll make sure to ask you if you want to tag along next time I take a walk. I'll see you in the morning" He gave her another smile before strolling into the hotel.

Making his way back up to the room, Roman's face soon turned to a scowl. She was getting suspicious, he could tell. Luckily, as far as he knew, she had nothing to back up any suspicions. _'Oh well, I only have to get through another day and they'll be behind me. I can stave her off until then'_

* * *

Hazel racked her brain to figure out what was bothering her as she continued to stand outside the hotel. She had seen Roman leave his room as she walked out to grab ice for her room. Curiosity getting the better of her, she had followed him outside, but quickly lost him in the evening crowd.

He hadn't done anything wrong, and her questioning had turned up that he had a perfectly legitimate reason for being out. He hadn't even seemed worried by her questioning. Besides being a little surprised in finding her waiting for him, he seemed pretty much like he always did. She hadn't noticed any strange dirt on his shoes, or anything else indicating he had been lying.

So why did she still feel like there was something he wasn't telling her?

Shivering slightly as a sea breeze picked up, she turned and headed inside. _'I'm being ridiculous'_ she thought as she took the elevator up to her floor.

 _'Still...I'll keep an eye on him'_


	9. Chapter 9

The next day, Roman swaggered out of the Sanus Sunset Hotel and out onto the still busy streets of Port Sanus. The day had been filled with a lot of waiting for him. After sleeping the morning away, he had entertained team FHHN's request and spent a few hours with them hitting different parts of the town, going window shopping, and even seeing some new action film with them. A Spruce Willis film to be precise, as Flannery had so often reminded him.

Finally the evening had rolled around, and he had found time to sneak out of his hotel room, hearing that the others were preoccupied with what sounded like a particularly intense board game in their own room. He was a bit early as it was only 8:30 pm, but he wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to sneak out without those nosy kids stopping him.

That being said, he had too much dignity to show up to a meeting on time, let alone early, so he currently found himself taking the scenic route.

He continued his confident stride down the strip, taking note of the fancy restaurants where too little food was served for too much lien. The clubs across the streets pulsated with bass filled music as bouncers scared off kids who were too young to get in, all still dressed up to make themselves look older.

Roman shook his head. At their age he had been pick-pocketing lien just so he and Neo could eat, yet these stupid kids were complaining about not being able to enter a club.

Besides, if they really wanted to get in that badly they could just climb up the network of piping that hung a few feet above the ground in the nearby alley and sneak in through the roof vent. That or pay the older, more tired looking bouncer a decent enough bribe. He looked tired enough of his job that he would probably accept it, unlike the younger bouncer who had just left on break and was still clearly striving to prove his worth in his obviously new job.

As Roman continued his stroll, he soon found himself walking through the docks. Figuring that he'd scope out the place in advance for when he left tomorrow morning. He wandered through the crowd, looking at different ships, when they left, where they were headed, and how much each trip costed.

As he waded through more people, one in particular caught his eye. "Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me" he muttered to himself as his eyes locked on to the all too familiar figure.

Kitty was here. Why the fuck was she here.

Roman quickly looked around for her teammates, but it seemed she was alone.

He was a decent distance from her and he felt confident that she was alone for the moment, so he took the time to observe her. She had a new outfit going on, with knee high boots and a a black undershirt that exposed her stomach. A silent grin spread across his face as he noticed her new coat, which just so happened to share a few things in common with his own coat. Seems like his impeccable style was rubbing off on her a little.

He noticed she was headed for a ship so he looked curiously at it's destination.

"Menagerie?" Roman questioned.

Huh, so she's running home to mommy and daddy now? Roman was no fool, he knew who kitty was, who her parents were, and where she was from. Anyone in their right mind would look into her history when you were working with a crazy bull who was seemingly obsessed with the girl.

He wasn't particularly worried about her either. He was confident that he could beat her with relative ease, especially now that he knew she had those dust clones. To be honest, he had know that he had to lose to whoever came through that door back on the train if he wanted to stay alive. He knew Cinder would have killed him if he hadn't put himself into a useful position on that ship after those kids had screwed up the timing on the train plan. It still hurt his pride to have to purposefully lose a fight like that, and he certainly hadn't expected her to knock him unconscious. In the end though, he was still alive and he now knew she had a few tricks up her sleeve, so it wasn't all bad.

No, she didn't worry him and he wasn't confused as to where she was going. What confused him was the lack of her teammates. Those little pests always traveled together, and it was odd that she was alone.

Suddenly a second figure caught his eye. A hooded figure was following Blake, far enough back to not be noticed by the girl, but close enough that he wouldn't lose her. After observing the hooded figure a little longer, he noticed a golden tail peeking out of the bottom of the cloak.

Rolling his eyes, he wondered why monkey boy was following her, but her teammates weren't in sight.

He continued watching them as they both boarded the ship, and within minutes the ship was leaving the port.

Roman hummed to himself as be mulled over all the new information. Apparently Blake was on her way home, and her teammates weren't with her. Monkey boy was also following her, but she didn't know that, and he apparently didn't want her to know. So either kitty had run off and left her friends behind, or team RWBY had all split up. It could be either based off what he knew. Blake had run off, and her teammates had sent monkey boy to follow her, or they had all split up and monkey boy had followed her on his own devices. Either way, this was useful information.

After pondering the whole situation for a few minutes more, Roman decided it was about time he met up with Ferris. He quickly found out which boat he would catch tomorrow morning, and set off for his meeting with Ferris.

He breathed a heavy sigh as he started to make his way through the rest of the docks and back into the streets of Port Sanus. _This is turning out to be an interested day'_ he thought to himself, _'I hope the rest of it goes smoothly'_


	10. Chapter 10

"Why are you always late!" Ferris whined as Roman sauntered up to their meeting place; a little park nestled between buildings.

Roman just chuckled as he stopped in front of Ferris. "Do you have everything?"

Ferris glanced around nervously, like usual. "Of course I do".

He handed Roman a gray rectangular case that had a simple handle on top, it was remarkably similar to the one's he used to store dust he got from robberies. Roman opened it up to check the contents while Ferris continued.

"Gravity dust, burn dust, spark dust, frost dust, $10,000 lien, and the information on everything we know about what the White Fang has been up to in this area, as well as what little we know of what they're up to in Mistral." Ferris listed off, looking much more confident now that he was discussing his area of expertise.

Roman closed the case and locked it before looking back to Ferris. "Good job kid! This is why your one of the best informants this side of Sanus! You even managed to get the dust and lien. I'm impressed!" Roman said as he grinned at Ferris.

"So am I done now?" Ferris whimpered as he nervously rubbed his hands.

"Yea yea, your free of your debts." Roman said with a hint of exasperation. "Anyways, I'll see ya around ki-"

Roman eyes widened in shock as a knife erupted from Ferris's throat. He immediately ducked into a roll as two more blades flew past where his head had just been.

Jumping up, Roman immediately brought up Melodic Cudgel to deflect a heavy strike from his unknown assailant. The masked figure stumbled back as Roman followed up the block with a heavy kick to their abdomen.

Roman briefly glanced down to where Ferris was gurgling and dying. "That was rude of you, I kinda liked that kid." Roman said as he composed himself and turned back to his assailant.

The figure definitely looked feminine. She was lithe and wielded a simple long-sword in one hand while multiple throwing knifes that were identical to the one protruding from Ferris's throat were strapped to her chest. Most notable however, was her White Fang mask and the wolf ears on her head.

"Roman Torchwick" She spat with venom as she brought herself back into a crouch.

"I'm pretty sure we both knew my name, darling. Don't wear it out." Roman said with nonchalance, "So what's a White Fang assassin doing all the way out here." He added as he calmly set down the case and twirled his cane, letting it come to a rest on his shoulder.

"You bastard! You don't even remember me!" The assassin said as she continued to slowly circle him like a panther preparing to leap.

"Should I?" Roman, despite his laid back looking stance, was watching the assassin carefully. Though he did raise an eyebrow, hoping to piss her off even more with his dismissive attitude.

She fell for it so easily that Roman couldn't suppress his smile.

"You fucker! You recruited us back in Vale at the rally, then left my brother to die in those tunnels at Mountain Glenn!" She snarled viciously "I'm going to tear you apart!"

"Hmm, can't say I remember either of you" Roman said with blatantly fake concern. "Did you file a complaint with Human resources? I'm sure they'd be willing to assist you with your problems."

He paused for a moment before continuing. "Hmm, now that I think of it, the White Fang wouldn't have HR. Maybe they have something like Animal Resources or something? Do they hand out dog treats and scratching posts? I wouldn't know. To be honest I never really bothered finding out what services the White Fang offered, never really held my interes-"

The assassin had clearly had enough of his taunting. She leaped at him with a furious screech, obviously hoping to take advantage of his relaxed posture.

Roman had been expecting this for some time now, and immediately swung his cane off his shoulder to deflect her flurry of strikes. Easily matching all her blows with his cane, he laughed as he knocked away a sloppy strike and deftly hooked his cane around her neck, pulling her directly into the fist of his other hand.

As she stumbled away from the blow, Roman changed his grip on his cane as he stalked towards her. Gripping his cane like a baseball bat now, he swung Melodic Cudgel like he was going for a home run, smacking the assassin away. Her weak aura shattered as she landed heavily on the ground a good dozen feet away.

As she struggled up on all fours, breathing heavily, Roman sauntered towards her in an almost casual manner. "Well that was pathetic." He chastised before slamming his foot into her side, knocking her another couple feet away.

The assassin was coughing up droplets of blood and yet again struggling to get up on her hands and knees. "Fuck you" she gasped between coughs.

"Sorry, that offer's not on the table" Roman said apathetically as he swaggered over to her.

Roman's footsteps stopped beside her, and she started to raise her head and speak at the same time "I swear to god I'll kill you for thi-" She cut off as she raised her head to look right into the end of Melodic Cudgel, and had scarcely a moment to register what she was seeing before her head and shoulders exploded.

"Somehow I doubt that" Roman said with a bored look on his face as the rest of her body flopped back onto the ground.

With a sigh he walked back over to the case, wiping a few specks of blood off his coat before picking it up.

Looking over at Ferris's body, he shook his head. Ferris was a good informant, it was a shame to lose him.

At least he had gotten his favors dealt with before the kid bit the dust.

 _'Well, now that I have everything I need, time to get out of town. I can finally ditch those damn kids!'_

"What the fuck!" An all too familiar voice shouted in shock.

Roman groaned loudly. There went his plans, yet again.

* * *

"Oh, hi there Hazel!" He said, forcing a smile as he spun around to look at the girl who was staring in horror at the scene before her.

She turned her gaze from the corpses and looked at Roman. "What did you do." She said with a sudden intensity.

"Well, unfortunately this piece of shit White Fang assassin ambushed my friend over there", he said with a nod to Ferris's body, "and then she went after me."

He paused and glanced over at her body, "Yea, that didn't work out too well for her." He said with a shrug.

Hazel was clearly trying to calm down, but she still looked horrified. "So you killed her?!"

"Um, yea. I told you, she killed my friend here and tried to kill me." Roman said with a bit of genuine confusion.

She struggled with her words for a moment, she obviously wanted to argue but couldn't think straight enough to form the words. Suddenly she stopped and refocused on Roman and what was in his hand.

"What were you even doing out here? And what's that in your hand?" She asked with a undisguised suspicion.

Roman honestly didn't know how to deal with this unexpected set of circumstances, so he just continued to wing it, though he still looked as calm as ever. "Well, like I said. I was meeting my friend here, and he gave me some dust he found at a good price" Roman said holding up the case for emphasis.

Before Hazel could say anything else, her scroll rang. Roman could hear the conversation from where he was standing. " **Hazel! We did some digging on him like you asked and you'll never believe what we found!"** Henry spoke quickly, like he was trying to get a lot of important information out quickly.

"Well don't keep me waiting" Hazel said, never taking her eyes off Roman.

" **His full name is Roman Torchwick. From what locals know off television, he was the most wanted man in Vale, with an extensive criminal history. Apparently about a year ago, he started popping up everywhere. Stealing massive amounts of dust and running the entire kingdom low. Then not too long ago, he apparently partnered up with the White Fang and led an attack on Vale. They led a large number of Grimm into the city through an explosive train under the city, luckily the Atlas military and a bunch of huntsmen were able to dampen the blow and stop the attack. He was captured and held in prison on one of Ironwood's ships to make sure they kept an eye on him. A huntsmen we found from Vale said that during the big attack on Vale, Ironwood's flagship blew up the rest of the fleet, then the robotic soldiers turned on the huntsmen and attacked them. Though at some point towards the end of the battle, the flagship went down as well. He was presumed dead along with the rest of Atlas's fleet. We need to find him right now Hazel."**

Roman had stood still, the whole time, his face having turned into a smirk.

Hazel eyes had gone wide, she then responded simply to Henry's explanation. "Guys, get here fast. I found him" She then quickly hung up and extended her clawed gauntlets, still glaring at Roman.

"Well, seems like you investigated my past, Hazel. I'm hurt that you didn't trust me." Roman spoke up, his smirk turning into a grin.

"You fucker, you lied to us!"

"Did I? I seem to recall you guys asking my name, where I came from, where I was going, and what happened in Vale. All of which I answered with the truth, or at least mostly the truth." Roman responded breezily.

Hazel was getting progressively angrier, but hadn't attacked yet. "What are you up to Torchwick?!"

She received a simple shrug in response.

"You're coming with us." she spat, getting even angrier as Roman kept up his nonchalant expression and posture.

"Hmm, tempting offer. Truly the pinnacle of negotiation! Alas, I still think I'll have to decline." Roman retorted. Suddenly Melodic Cudgel snapped up and fired off a bright red flare.

Hazel's eyes widened and she hastily dived out of the way as the flare exploded before her. Scrambling to her feet, she cursed when she saw that Roman was gone. Looking around frantically, she spotted his signature coat disappearing over the crest of a nearby roof. Cursing again, she quickly scaled the building with her claws before dashing after Roman. She could still see him, but he had a pretty good head start.

As she was running she called up her teammates. " **Where are you!?"** Flannery's voice sounded in her ear. "He's heading east on Marshall Street! Get in a vehicle or something and catch up with him, I'm following him on foot!" Hazel gasped between breaths as she ran.

* * *

Roman had a plan. It was sudden, and not very good, but he was on a strict time schedule. Earlier this evening when he saw Blake at the docks and found the boat he was supposed to take tomorrow, he remembered seeing one of the boats was leaving tonight in a few minutes from now. It wouldn't take him exactly where he wanted to go, but it would take him to the right continent and he didn't have time to be picky. Beggars can't be choosers.

As he continued to sprint along the rooftops of Port Sanus, he looked back and saw that Hazel was still following him, but he had a decent lead on her.

 _'This won't be too hard, she's pretty far back'_ Roman thought, pleased that things were in his favor for once.

Suddenly something flew right by his face, not even 3 inches from his nose. Jerking his head back, he looked down to see a truck flying down the road that ran parallel to him, the other 3 members of FHHN driving it. Henry was driving, Flannery and Noah were in the back and he saw Noah trying to line up another shot with his halberd/rifle.

"Of course! Nothing can ever be simple, can it!?" Roman shouted to no one in particular as he ducked underneath another one of Noah's shots.

"JUST GIVE UP TORCHWICK!" Flannery shouted at him from the street below.

Instead of responding, Roman started firing shots from Melodic Cudgel down at the kid's truck.

 _''So much for easy'_ Roman growled to himself as he continued to fire down at them. _'Damn kids'_

 **(-)**

Henry was continuously swerving past cars and Roman's shots alike, but it wasn't easy. "CAN YOU HURRY UP AND STOP HIM!" Henry shouted back at the other two as he swung a left past a small car before immediately having to swerve right, barely avoiding Torchwick's flare that blew a hole in the street a few feet from their truck.

"TRYING!" Noah shouted back.

Flannery had a few dust-fused throwing knives at the ready, but was having trouble lining up a shot between Roman running and jumping along the roof, and their truck swerving all over the place.

"Why is this so difficult!" She whined as she struggled to stay standing in the back of the truck, arm's flailing in an attempt to retain her balance.

Suddenly Henry swerved again and Flannery fell onto her butt, facing the front of the truck.

"Ohhhhhhhhh that's not good. HENRY, WATCH OUT!" Flannery shouted up at him.

Henry, hearing her warning, lowered his head closer to the steering wheel so he could see farther up. Once he saw it, his eye widened and he slammed on the brakes.

* * *

Roman watched from the corner of his eye as the construction crane that he had just shot down fell across the street, crushing a few cars under it. Collateral damage was unavoidable sometimes.

More importantly though, the crane had blocked the kids truck. He saw them skid to a halt in front of the crane and grinned.

Now he just needed to get away from Hazel. He glanced back as he continued his run along the top of the buildings and saw that she had gained some ground while he had been trading shots with her team.

Looking up ahead, he saw that his path was soon coming to an end. Up ahead the buildings started to get farther apart and shorter in height as they neared the docks.

He skidded to a stop at the last roof before the buildings grew further apart and quickly grabbed some gravity dust rounds out of the case he still carried. Closing it back up, he looked back to see that Hazel was only about two buildings behind him.

He quickly jumped off the roof and used his aura to absorb the force of dropping 2 stories. As soon as his feet touched the ground he took off in another sprint, running through the sparse crowds at the docks.

As he neared the edge of the docks he saw his ride, " _The Voyager"_ pulling away from the docks.

Behind him Hazel was shouting "STOP ROMAN, THERE'S NOWHERE TO GO!"

Instead, Roman pushed himself to run even faster. As he hit the end of the docks he jumped and fired a gravity round at the dock at the same time, launching himself into the air over the sea. As he started falling back towards the water he fired his grappling hook out, latching onto the edge of _"The Voyager"_ before quickly clicking a button and reeling himself rapidly towards the ship. He slammed into the side of a ship with a grunt, before pulling himself up onto the deck.

He stood up, fixed his hat, and looked back towards the docks while trying to catch his breath.

Hazel had skidded to a halt at the edge of the docks, and screamed angrily at him as her team jogged up behind her.

Roman grinned widely as he gave them a casual and mocking salute. Noah fired off one last desperate shot, but Roman and the ship were too far off for him to be accurate. Roman laughed loudly as he watched the dust round fly harmlessly off into the distance, easily missing him by a dozen feet.

As the kids grew smaller and smaller in the distance, Roman turned around and set off to find a spare room to break into for the trip. The ship was decent sized and clearly meant to provide a comfortable trip for it's passengers. Not exactly what he had expected, but he was definitely not going to complain. He set off along the deck, smiling to himself the whole way.

* * *

"Fuck fuck fuck!" Hazel screamed as she stomped around on the edge of the docks, watching the ship fade into a small black dot in the distance.

Noah stood still with a deep frown on his face, while Henry gritted his teeth.

"He played us" Flannery said flatly as she watched the ship fade into the horizon.

As Hazel continued to stomp around and throw a fit, Noah noticed a piece of paper about the size of a playing card stuck in the one of the wooden posts that were placed evenly across the dock. Pulling it out, he called the others over and they looked at it together.

 _ **Better luck next time kids. Next time, try not to be so gullible. It would be just horrible if someone were to take advantage of your hospitality.**_

 _ **Oh and Hazel, I left your journal at the hotel. You know you should really tell Noah how you feel sometime, if you bottle that up anymore I'm pretty sure you'll explode ;)**_

At the bottom of the paper was Roman's emblem, a grinning Jack O' lantern.

Noah looked over to Hazel after reading the card and the girl was a dark shade of red and, true to the note, looked like she might explode.

"I'M GOING TO FUKING KILL THAT BASTARD!" Hazel screamed at no one in particular as she stomped the dock, deliberately avoiding Noah's questioning gaze.

"Whelp, looks like we're going on a manhunt to Mistral." Flannery commented as she watched Hazel stalk away and Noah try to find enough words to form a question for her.

Henry just watched his team and shook his head. He wasn't sure exactly what would happen next, but he did know that this was going to be one hell of a ride.

* * *

 _ **Hey guys, longest chapter yet! Woo!**_

 _ **Had a tad of trouble writing this one, so I'm not sure how well it turned out, but I did what I could. As for chapter length, I don't really have a set length. They'll just be however long I feel they need to be.**_

 _ **If you guys see anything that could use improving, be sure to let me know! I'm always open to constructive criticism, and encourage it!**_

 _ **Until next time, see you guys!**_


	11. Chapter 11

Neo stepped into her room at the inn, closing the door behind her. The room was small and simple, just a bed, a small table, a TV and a bathroom with a large window on the wall opposite the door. Rain was beating on the window of the room, doing nothing to help her mood. After shutting the curtains, she let her disguise fall away, her black and white dress and black pigtails magically falling away into her usual outfit and hair color. She had used the same disguise from the Vytal festival as a disguise to purchase a room in some small town on the way to Mistral. She didn't know exactly where she was, but she really didn't care.

She looked fine, but her eyes betrayed how she really felt. They stayed white, as they had since the day she was flung off that airship. At first they had been white because she was terrified as she floated down to Vale, somehow managing to fend off any Grimm that took interest in her on her way down. But as she watched Roman's airship crash into Vale in flames and subsequently was unable to find him, her eyes remained that pale white color out of the fear she felt. Even now, several weeks later, they still stayed white, displaying her internal fear and uncertainty for anyone who knew what to look for.

She curled up on the bed, bringing her knees up to her chest.

She felt the same as she had all those years ago before Roman found her and took her in. Alone. Scared. Small.

She tried to ignore the small tears peeking out of the corner of her eyes, pretending they weren't there even as they slid down her cheeks.

He had promised to always be there for her, but where was he now?! They were supposed to always make it through this crazy plot of Cinder's. Even when she had been scared and unsure of the future, Roman had always put up a big cocky smile and said they would make it through this like they always did, even though she knew he was just as scared as she was.

She missed that stupid smile.

Memories swirled around her as she slipped out of consciousness, letting sleep overtake her. Dreams of fire and fear plagued her as dark beasts screamed and smoldering eyes shone in the darkness. She covered her ears as the screams came back, filling the air as they proclaimed their pain and terror. She wanted to cry and scream as she had back then, but could offer nothing more than a silent wail to join the chorus.

Suddenly, a single flame lit up in the darkness. This one warm and soothing, unlike the hungry flames that had consumed and destroyed. This little flame danced in the darkness, warming her and comforting her. It shielded her from the horrors of the night and she smiled for what felt like the first time. The darkness gradually disappeared, though the little flame never left her side, and she was filled with happiness rather than fear. She gigged happily as orange hair and ice cream filled her view, a soothing voice and rich laughter drifted through her ears. Sweet cigar smoke tickled her nose as all the colors, smells and sounds swirled together.

The sunlight peeked through the curtains, pulling her out of her sleep. Rubbing her eyes and wiping the tear stains off her cheeks, she sat up.

As she stood up and threw back the curtains, she knew that things were still far from ok, but at least she had a glimmer of hope now.

He may not be with her at the moment, but she had to believe Roman was out there. He was a survivor, like her, and he was out there looking for her. She had to believe that. If she didn't, then what would she have left?

She got up, checked her parasol, and prepared to leave. There was no more time to waste.

She would stick to the contingency plan that her and Roman had agreed on years ago. Make it to the safe house in Mistral and meet up with Roman, That's where he would go looking for her.

She changed her appearance, once more taking the disguise she wore to the Vytal festival. With a new spark in her step that had been missing for far too long, she sauntered out of the Inn.

Now _this,_ this was a purpose, not some ridiculous scheme like the one Cinder had forced them into. Getting back to the one person she actually cared about was something she could fight for, and nothing was going to stop her.


	12. Chapter 12

Roman sighed, dropping the files about the White Fang he had gotten from Ferris onto the table of his little room.

He had spent the past two days crafting new, special dust rounds for his cane and digging through all the information he had on the Fang. From what he could gather they had largely moved out of Vale, with only a fraction of the force staying near Vale.

It seemed that Cinder really did think he was dead, because there had been nothing about looking for him in the orders that Ferris had somehow snagged. But there was something much more disturbing in the orders. The Fang was supposed to keep an eye out for and, if possible, capture a recent traitor. Neo. Part of him was happy to find out that she was alive, and had gotten away from Cinder. But now Cinder obviously wanted her, and he doubted Cinder would want Neo for anything but to make her death as painful as possible.

Plopping onto the little couch in his room, Roman covered his face with his hands.

God he hated this silence. He had kept busy enough lately to avoid it, but now that he was stuck on this godforsaken ship he had no way to escape it.

That cursed silence. Once things got silent you were left alone with your thoughts, your fears. Roman hated it. He didn't want to think about the "what if's". He didn't want to imagine Neo out there on her own, probably thinking he was dead. He didn't want the faces of those he had killed and those he had failed to dance behind his eyes. He didn't want memories from the past to resurface.

Suddenly he stood up and punched the coat rack by the door, the stand crashing over and spilling his coat and hat that he had hung there onto the floor. Spinning around, he kicked the coffee table causing it to flip over and spill yesterdays half filled coffee cup onto the ground.

He was angry, that much he knew. At what? He wasn't quite sure. Maybe he was angry at the world for all the shit it had thrown at him. Maybe he was angry at Cinder for what she had forced upon him and Neo. Maybe he was angry at himself.

He wasn't sure, but he knew that anger was better than despair, so he allowed himself this little escape.

After a few more minutes of rage, he stopped himself. He looked about the now thrashed room. Decorations were strewn about, the lamp was broken in half over the couch and the chairs were all over the room. The papers were still neatly placed upon the kitchen table though. Even in his fit of rage he had made sure to preserve the important things.

Take a big breath, followed with a long slow exhale. Repeat.

Anger was important, but he couldn't let himself get carried away by it, consumed by it. Just like he couldn't let his dark thoughts consume him.

He took another moment to breathe, then began picking up the mess he had created.

Now wasn't the time to get lost in himself. He had a mission.

Unfortunately that mission couldn't resume until he got off this ship.

Grabbing his hat and coat off the floor, he put everything on before standing the coat hanger back up.

He couldn't do anything until he left this ship, but at least he could use that time to cheer himself up. Unfortunately for the people on this ship, cheering himself up usually involved ticking someone else off.

Stepping out and closing the door behind him, he adjusted his hat before descending the stairs into the restaurant of the ship. It was fairly small, but was decently well furnished, a crystal chandelier being the focal point of the room.

The sign at the front of the restaurant said "Please wait to be seated", so instead he waltzed right past the sign while indicating the hostess to grab him a menu.

"Sir, please allow us to seat you!" She exclaimed as she followed Roman, clearly confused and taken back by his blatant disregard for the large sign. Roman did note that despite her words, she had still grabbed a menu for him.

Roman simply ignored her pleas with a smirk on his face as he made his way over to an open table and sat down.

The young hostess caught up with him moments later. "Sir! You can't just seat yourself!"

Roman turned to the girl, feigned innocence on his face. "Why not? There was no one waiting and this table was clearly open. You would have either sat me here, or that table over there." He said, pointing at the only other empty table.

The young woman sputtered over her words with a distraught face before finally forming a coherent sentence. "It's the rules sir! We are supposed to seat guests!"

Roman simply rolled his eyes "Right. Now if you're done, I'd enjoy looking over the menu. Also for a drink I'll just have a water."

"Sir! I am not the busser! I haven't -"

Roman cut her off, raised an eyebrow "Seems like this place doesn't have as good service as I was told. I don't recall reading about argumentative staff. I guess I'll just have to take my complaints to someone of more authority."

With that he slowly began to stand up only for the hostess to frantically attempt to placate him, rushing off to fetch a water pitcher as he settled back into his seat.

A good hour and half later, Roman strolled out of the restaurant, past a very flustered hostess an onto the deck. After getting out of sight he pulled out the lien he snatched. Seemed like that hostess was making some pretty good tips. He wasn't exactly sure how since she was just a hostess, but hey, he wasn't complaining.

After putting the newly acquired lien back in his pocket, Roman strolled across the deck, enjoying the breeze.

Leaning onto the railing of the ship Roman gazed out over the waves to where the sun was setting, casting an orange glow over the ocean.

The captain's voice came on over the speaker system. "Hey folks, this is your captain here! We will be reaching our destination tomorrow morning at approximately 9 am. Enjoy your final night on _The Voyager_!"

Roman, still enjoying the view, felt anticipation build up. Even if he wasn't going to be landing at where he had originally planned on after that whole fiasco in Port Sanus, he was anxious to get back on the road to Mistral. It was going to take him longer to get there now, but that was just all the more reason to get going as soon as possible.

"I'll be there as soon as I can Neo. Stay safe." He murmured, the crashing of the waves drowning out his voice.


	13. Chapter 13

Roman tapped his cane impatiently on the deck of the ship, standing with a small crowd in front of the disembarking ramp.

They had docked almost an hour ago, and still had yet to be let off the ship. Many people remained elsewhere on the ship, not in any hurry to get off the cruise. However, the people who actually had somewhere to be stood in front of the off ramp, many annoyed that they hadn't been allowed to disembark already.

Roman, trying to quell his impatience, looked over the little town. It was a little port town called Sirenaka. It was a popular vacation town in Anima that several of his associates had stayed at once or twice. He could certainly see it's appeal. A stunning ocean view, relatively small size, and the beautiful cherry blossom trees that swayed gently in and around the town made for a beautiful location, and he knew that between natural barriers and some expensive defenses Grimm attacks were extremely rare. He guessed that between it's beauty, nice weather, and relative safety people would stay generally happy, giving the Grimm even less reason to attack. If it hadn't been further away from Mistral than the other port town he had planned on going to, he would have originally planned on coming here.

Still, he was impatient to be on his way. The sooner he got to Mistral the better. Hell, right now he just wanted to get off this damn ship!

"Sorry folks!" A crew member jogged up to the ramp and began to lower it. "We had to go through standard docking procedures and it took a little longer than expected, enjoy your time in Sirenaka!"

As soon as the ramp had fully lowered, the small crowd moved forward. Roman brushed past several people as he got off the ship and finally stepped foot into the town, not caring if he bumped anybody aside or not.

One man almost fell as Roman pushed past him, stumbling and saving himself from falling flat on his face. Standing up straight, he spun around angrily. "Hey pal! Watch it you fucking idiot!"

Roman stopped, turned to the man, and watched as the man's eyes widened in recognition.

"Oh shit." He whispered quietly, eyes still wide and looking at Roman. In an attempt to escape the situation, the man spun around and started to walk away quickly.

Roman sighed before reaching out and hooking his cane onto the back of the man's shirt. Dragging the man back into his grasp, Roman casually swung an arm over the man's shoulder and started to lead him further into town.

"Hey there Willy! Long time no see!" Roman said brightly, before lowering his voice and whispering into the man's ear "Walk to your hotel or house and act like we're old friends, or I break your leg's and leave you out for the Grimm."

The man's stiffened and began to walk past the shops and restaurants, still clearly uneasy with Roman's arm slung over his shoulder like they were good friends.

Soon the shops faded into a more residential area, with small, quaint houses lining either side of the road. They stopped in front of a grayish blue house that looked similar to the other one's lining the street, and walked up to the front door. The man typed a password into the electronic lock on the door and opened the door before Roman shoved him into the house and closed the door behind him.

The man turned to Roman with fearful eyes and opened his mouth to speak, but Roman swung his left fist into the man's temple without hesitation. Immediately the man dropped to the ground like a sack of bricks.

Roman grunted. "No aura, good thing I didn't hit him too hard."

Now he had to figure out what to do before the guy woke up. The guy clearly recognized him, and that wouldn't do. Roman debated killing him, but that would just end up with the police getting involved, and possibly any nearby huntsmen.

 _'Guess I should figure out what I'm dealing with before deciding anything'_

Bending down, Roman quickly found the man's wallet and scroll in his pockets. Walking a few steps away, Roman leaned against the table before flipping open the wallet.

Gerald Flynn. 29 years old. Citizen of Vale.

Well, at least he knew how the guy recognized him. But if the guy had lived in Vale and had just gotten off the same ship as Roman, then whose house were they in?

Roman walked over to what looked like the living room. A tropical flower patterned couch sat at one side of the room, under a window, while a decorative fireplace was built into the wall on the opposite side of the room. Several pictures sat on top of the mantle, and a TV was mounted to the wall above that. Roman looked along the mantle, noting that most of the pictures were of an unfamiliar man and woman, with a girl who looked about 12 along with them. There was no way this was Gerald's house. As he continued to look at the pictures, one caught his eye. It was a picture of Gerald smiling next to the mother that was present in the other pictures. Both Gerald and the woman had similar dark brown hair. So maybe this was his sister's house? Or perhaps an old friend, though from the look of the picture Roman was willing to bet it was his sister.

Deciding that he wouldn't learn anything else from the pictures, Roman opened up Gerald's scroll. The idiot didn't even have a password on it. Tapping the messenger icon, Roman pulled up the most recent conversation. It was with some woman named Felisha and one of the last messages said "The pass code to the door is 73091, just let yourself in and we'll be home later tonight".

Just then, Gerald starting groaning.

Roman made his way over to the man while he was sitting up and rubbing his head.

"Mornin' sleeping beauty, enjoy your nap?" Roman said with a large grin as he leaned over his cane and looked down at the man.

The man still had his eyes shut and was rubbing his head. "Ugh, feels like someone hit me upside the head with a fucking pipe" he groaned.

"Oh come now Gerald, it was just my fist, no need to exaggerate."

Blinking open his eyes, Gerald looked up at Roman's grinning face and immediately froze.

"Shit, I was hoping that whole thing had been a bad dream."

"Afraid not Gerald."

"...you're Roman Torchwick."

"Congratulations! You've completed the first step of a conversation: identifying who you're talking to. Let's see if you can figure out the next step."

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, please don't kill me!"

"Guess not." Roman sighed before rolling his eyes. "Calm down Gerald, I'm not going to kill you."

Gerald, still breathing a bit more rapidly than he should have been, looked positively terrified. "Then what do you want with me?!"

Roman pulled over a chair, before taking a seat, still facing the man on the floor. "Well Gerald, you recognized me, and I can't have you going off to telling anybody or-"

"I swear I won't tell anyone!"

Roman grinned "I know you won't."

He pulled out his lighter, flicked it open and let the flames dance for a moment. Roman's voice was as bright as ever and his grin was still plastered on his face, but his words carried a certain weight that absolutely terrified Gerald. "Because if you do, Felicia, her husband, your little niece, and this whole house go up in flames."

Gerald paled, his eyes fixated on the flames dancing upon Roman's lighter.

"Do we understand our little agreement here Gerald?"

Silence filled the air as Gerald's eyes remained on the flames.

Finally, the man opened his mouth, but no words came out. Instead he just nodded very solemnly.

Suddenly, in one fluid motion Roman stood up, closed the lighter with a sharp _snap!,_ and slipped the lighter back into his coat.

"Great! Now that everything's cleared up, I'll be on my way!"

Gerald seemed to snap out of it as soon as Roman's lighter closed, and he struggled to his feet.

Roman seemed not to notice and waltzed towards the door, giving his cane a quick twirl along the way. "Oh and Gerald, I'll be keeping my eyes on ya." With a final wink, Roman closed the door and Gerald was left struggling to comprehend what had just happened.

Everything had happened so quickly, that he could almost imagine it was a weird daydream, but the steady clacking of a cane that was slowly getting further away reminded him that it was very much real.

* * *

Roman strolled down the main street of Sirenaka, heading for one shop in particular. After being recognized, and having to deal with everything that came with that, he had decided that he needed a disguise.

As he wandered into the clothes shop, he noticed the cashier was talking on their scroll and apparently hadn't noticed Roman walk in. Ignoring the man, Roman continued into the shop. Soft music played in the background and multitudes of clothes lined the walls and shelves. This place had everything, from suits, to traditional clothes of Anima, and everything in between.

Roman was impressed, you really could find clothes for anything in here.

He wandered through the sea of clothes, trying to decide what would make a good disguise. A black suit with red accents? Eh. It looked good, but that was just as "stand out-ish" as his current attire and wouldn't really help him lay low.

He passed the causal section without a second glance. Casual just wasn't his style. Save that for the plebeians that ran shops and did desk jobs.

As he entered the traditional section, one outfit caught his eye. A traditional kimono type robe, obviously influenced from Mistral's culture, stood out to him. It was a men's long white robe that looked like it was made of silk, adorned with a green flowering pattern that ran from the right shoulder down across the bottom, though the left shoulder was bare of any patterns. It came paired with a simple long sleeved black undershirt that fit snugly around the wearer's body.

Roman stared at the outfit thoughtfully. It would help him blend in with this culture fairly well, but still was beautiful and unique enough that he wouldn't look just like everyone else. Still, it was just a baseline. He would need a few accessories to complete the look. Pulling the outfit off the wall, he began to look around for anything else that would compliment the look.

 _'Ohohoho what do we have here?'_ Roman smirked to himself as a particular garment seemed to call out from the wall. It was a very long traditional Mistralian silken scarf that was a beautiful maroon color and speckled with a floral white that gave the impression of petals falling. Towards the center of the scarf, the maroon color faded into a gray.

Grinning to himself, Roman plucked the stunning silk scarf off the wall and set it on top of the white and green kimono. Now all that was left was to steal this stuff and get on the road.

However, before Roman could move he heard the cashier, who was still on the phone, begin to raise their voice. "$4,000 lien? I don't have that kind of money! Her mother is dead and I work at a clothing store! Please, is there any other way to get the treatment?" The man paused as a voice Roman couldn't hear responded from the scroll. "Please! She's only 6 and she can't go without this treatment, but we'll lose our house with all these medical bills stacking up, I can't pay them all! Please, I'll work for you to pay it off or something, anything?" The man pleaded back into the scroll, his voice growing desperate. The voice on the scroll responded once more, before promptly ending the call.

This was the perfect time to make an easy theft and leave while the man was distracted, but for some reason Roman hesitated.

 _'Oh for fuck's sake Roman, get ahold of yourself. You've ignored people and their problems your whole life, this shouldn't be any different.'_ He chastised himself with a scowl.

Hell, he had just threatened to burn down a family home with the family still in it because he wanted some dude to keep quiet about seeing him. He was a coldhearted man and prided himself on it, so this shouldn't even be giving him pause.

Still, he couldn't shake the memories of a small girl with pink and brown hair lying on her dirty bed, hair matted to her head and eyes dull as her body radiated heat and struggled to simply cough. Meanwhile a younger Roman, dark circles under his eyes and hair unkempt, argued frantically with a man outside, telling him he could repay him in 2 weeks time as long as he got the medicine now. The man stubbornly shook his head as Roman pleaded further.

Snapping back to the present, Roman stood perfectly still for another few moments.

'I _can't believe I'm actually doing this'_

Stalking up to the front of the store, Roman tossed the kimono and long scarf onto the counter.

The man, who had been staring at his scroll looked up sharply before offering a weak smile. "Oh! I'm sorry sir, I didn't see you come in. Will this be all?"

"Of course that's all. If I had more I wanted to buy I would have brought more up to the counter." Roman sneered.

The man looked taken aback but composed himself fairly quickly, though he still looked perplexed. "Oh course sir, your total will be $325."

Roman reached into his coat and pulled out a stack or roughly $5,000 lien before tossing it carelessly onto the counter. Wordlessly, he grabbed his kimono and scarf off the counter, shoved them into a bag, and began to to walk towards the door.

The man, recovering from his initial shock, turned to Roman. "Uh, um sir? Your change!"

Roman, still making his way towards the door, snarled a response at the man "Consider it a tip. Good luck with your kid."

As Roman pushed his way out the door, the man just stood there, trying to wrap his head around what the fuck had just happened.

* * *

The figure watched as Roman Torchwick pushed his way out of the little shop, a bag in his hand and a scowl on his face. The criminal adjusted his ascot, dusted some imaginary dust off of his coat, then set off in the opposite direction of him.

Still sitting at the little table beneath the shade of the cherry blossom tree a little ways away from the shop, the figure reached for the scroll that rested on the table. Dialing a number, the figure brought the scroll up to his ear and spoke.

"I've found him. How should I proceed?"

A voice responded "Our orders are to shadow the target until further instruction. I'll relay your message back through the other agents, though with this whole CCT fiasco it could take a week or more for the message to get back to HQ. Be careful in the meantime."

The figure grunted in agreement, still watching Roman get farther and farther away. "Will do, I'll check back in soon."

With that, the figure ended the call, stood up and slowly started off in the direction Roman had went, making his way through the crowd.

* * *

 **Hey guys, I got a longer chapter today!** **Something's brewing, and I'm excited to start this section of the story. I'm not sure I wrote this correctly, but I did my best so I guess we'll see how it's received.**

 **Also, before I forget, the site seems to have been having trouble with updates and notifications recently, and I think a lot of you missed my last chapter. I hope they've fixed the problem by now, but either way I'm uploading.**

 **Anyways, I'll see you guys next week with another chapter!**


	14. Chapter 14

Roman blinked open his eyes as morning sunlight filtered through the large window of his luxurious hotel room in Sirenaka. As he slowly pulled himself upright in bed and stretched, the alarm he had set last night started beeping obnoxiously, shattering his brief peace.

"A lot of good you did me." He yawned as he reached across to turn the alarm off. He blindly hit the nightstand in search of the alarm while he rubbed his eyes with his other hand, before realizing that it wasn't where he thought it was.

Sighing, he looked across at the _other_ nightstand on the opposite side of the bed where the alarm continued to bleat out it's incessant beeps.

Roman, mumbling something about how it was too early for this shit, stumbled out of the bed and walked around to the other nightstand before finally turning the alarm off.

As he walked over to the bathroom where the coffee maker sat, he never did understand why hotels did that, he reminded himself why he had to get up so early.

After yesterdays events, he had found that he still needed to stock up on supplies for the road to Mistral, but all of the stores he needed to visit had closed since it had been so late. That had meant he had to stay the night in Sirenaka.

Now of course, he had made sure to choose one of the nicest hotels in Sirenaka for his stay, but it truly mattered little to him. Today he had to gather supplies for the trip. Food, water, probably a tent. Either way, he was determined to be on his way as quickly as possible, so here he was, awake at 7:30 am and hating every second of it.

After a shower and a breakfast courtesy of room-service he decided it was time to try on this disguise.

He pulled on the black long-sleeve undershirt and the plain dark pants before reaching for the kimono. He took a moment to appreciate the silken white robe and the beautiful green flowering pattern that flowed down the kimono, before promptly putting it on and tying the ribbon-like belt around his waist to keep it in place. Next he plucked the long silken scarf off the bed. He wrapped the middle part around his neck once then let it drape over his shoulders.

Instinctively he reached for his bowler hat before pausing. That would not only ruin the point of a disguise, but it also just didn't go with the outfit.

Grumbling to himself, he stepped back and looked in the mirror.

His white kimono reached all the way down to his ankles, the green flower pattern adorning the garment. His black undershirt was visible where the kimono came together and left an open V neck. Wrapped around his neck was the gray middle part of the long scarf, while the red and white petaled ends draped over his shoulders, reaching all the way down past his elbows. And like always, his hair was swept over his right eye.

Judging the entire ensemble, he reached one conclusion.

"I need a hat."

* * *

Pushing his way through the throngs of people, Roman finally reached the door of the market and stumbled out, gasping for breath. "Why are there so many people out today?" He groaned.

Everywhere he looked, people walked back and forth throughout the streets of Sirenaka. Stores were crowded, little farmers markets were busy selling their fresh produce, and tourists mixed in with the crowds, meandering around and taking pictures while looking like complete idiots.

After having packed his belongings this morning, Roman had set out into town to pick up the supplies he needed. Unfortunately, it appeared that he had chosen the busiest day of the week to do so. He had spent over 2 hours just getting the food he needed for his journey, and had gotten a hiking pack to stuff the supplies into, but he still needed to find some camping supplies before he set out.

Well that and he still wanted to find a hat that went with his outfit. So far his new outfit was faring well. No one had recognized him, it was comfortable and he thought it looked pretty good on him as well. It just didn't feel quite right without a hat though, so he had made sure to keep his eyes open while shopping in case he saw one that suited his fancy.

" 'Course nothing has shown up yet" Roman grumbled to himself as he put his hand over his visible eye to shield it from the sun.

Scanning the bustling marketplace in front of him he decided now was a better time to start than any.

Delving into the throngs of people, he kept an eye on the stands as he made his way through the crowds. A bunch of cheap bead jewelry to sell to tourists here, some local produce stands over there, they even had a dust stand. Roman snorted at the sight of it. He wouldn't steal that stuff even if he was paid to. The nicest thing he could say about that stuff is "low quality". The best use for that stuff was maybe some old generator you didn't care that much about, try sticking that dust in any sort of weapon and it was liable to blow up in your face.

Making his way past yet another T-shirt stand, his eye caught on a local fruit stand. It wasn't a hat, but those apples _did_ look good.

Making his way over to the fruit stand, he let himself fall into the old habit of scanning the crowd. He kept his focus on choosing a good apple, but jade eyes roamed around, watching faces. In reality it probably wasn't needed. He wasn't the premier crime lord of Vale anymore and all of the people he might have to worry about thought he was dead. However, some habits die hard. Getting in to the crime world required a lot more than just huntsmen training, though he could personally attest to the usefulness of such training in his rise to power. Those girls though, team RWBY, could hold their own in a fight just fine but had they tried to really enter the crime world they wouldn't have lasted long.

He payed for his apple of choice and turned around, still watching the crowd. As his teeth met the apple his eyes caught someone that arose his suspicion. The man looked normal enough, short brown hair with a hint of gray, a cup of coffee in one hand and a newspaper in the other. A totally normal man sitting at a bench. Yet Roman still felt that there was something off about this guy. He looked familiar, and Roman was pretty sure he had seen him around Sirenaka a couple times since he had arrived. That and his position just so happened to be the place with the best view over the market place. Those were just small things though. What really set his alarms off was that the man's eyes weren't focused on the newspaper in front of him. His eyes were doing the same Roman's had just been doing. Scanning the crowd, roving back and forth over faces. Looking for someone.

Suddenly their eyes met. Green met blue and soon both of them knew. The man stood up, tucked the newspaper under his arm and started off away from Roman at a brisk pace.

Roman smirked. So this was how they were going to play it? Alright then.

Roman took off after the man, pushing his way through the crowd. People shouted as he pushed past them, but he wasn't worried about being inconspicuous at the moment. As he made his way out of the crowd he caught sight of the man rounding a corner just ahead of him.

Roman chuckled to himself, it was like this guy actually expected him to not realize this was a trap. The chances of Roman just so happening to see the this guy rounding a corner when he had that much of a head start could only be chocked up to a coincidence. Too bad Roman didn't believe in coincidence.

Still, it wasn't like he had a choice. He couldn't just let this spy go free, and so he followed.

Rounding the corner, Roman just caught sight of his target turn into an abandoned building.

" _What convenient timing again"_ Roman thought with a smirk.

Well, no point in rushing now. He knew where the ambush would be. Taking his time, Roman walked towards the building casually, as if this were a daily occurrence.

This guy was clearly desperate if he was trying to pull this after being caught spying, it was like a cornered rat. Still, cornered animals were dangerous.

Reaching the door, Roman went to grab Melodic Cudgel off his belt loop from under his kimono.

After fiddling with the the kimono for a minute, damn thing was harder to get around than he thought, he pulled out his cane.

After pushing open the door and stepping in, the first thing he noticed was that it was dark, especially when he let the door close behind him. The only light filtered in through a few grimy skylights on the roof, giving the place abysmal lighting. It seemed like the place was some sort of warehouse. Large wooden crates were stacked in stacks between two and four crates high, and narrow spaces allowed someone to walk between them and get to the farther reaches of the warehouse. Roman was standing in a clear space a few feet from the door, a good 10 feet between him and the start of the crates.

Looking around the place, Roman huffed before hooking his cane over his forearm, pulling out a cigar and his lighter. Putting the cigar in his mouth, he clicked the lighter a few times trying to catch a spark. Soon a flame burst from the lighter and caught the tip of cigar. Putting the lighter away, he puffed the cigar a couple of times, letting it glow in the dim lighting.

After a moment, Roman spoke up, his voice echoing in the warehouse. "You know, I had been pretty damn sure you would attack while I was lighting up that cigar. At least, that's what I would have don-"

A swish of air cut him off as he snapped his cane up to deflect a blade and push back his assailant a few feet.

"Don't you know that it's rude to interrupt someone when they're talking?" Roman snarked.

The other man held a large dagger in his hand, the blade curved slightly at the end and looked extremely sharp, but otherwise didn't seem to have and other fancy components or contraptions. He held himself in a stiff combat pose and said nothing to Roman's quip, simply keeping his hard blue glare on Roman.

"Yeesh, and you don't respond when directly spoken to? Your mother certainly wasn't big on teaching manners was she?" Spinning his cane around, Roman watched the man's eyes as they fixated on his cane.

Hmm. Well that was something to test.

Letting his cane stop spinning and rest on his shoulder, Roman smiled at the man. Without warning his cane shot out towards the man in a quick thrust but was parried away by the dagger. The man retaliated with a quick swipe that Roman dodged with ease and stepped back.

Still smirking, Roman took a few slow paces around the man, still out of reach. Suddenly he flicked his cane down in overhead blow, but feinted back and swung low instead.

The man's eyes never left Melodic Cudgel and he easily called the feint, ignoring it completely and going low to deflect the actual attack. He quickly pushed the advantage and stepped forward in a flurry of swipes. Roman backpedaled, deflecting each swipe with an easy twirl or flick of his cane and laughing the whole time.

The man quickly recognized that his attack wasn't going to pan out and jumped back before Roman could capitalize on a mistake.

Roman grinned as the man reset back to his original fighting stance and waited for Roman to make a move. He slowly walked towards the man, tossing melodic back and forth between his hands the whole time. The man's eyes frantically watched the weapon as it moved between Roman's hands, tensely waiting for an attack. Suddenly Roman tossed Melodic Cudgel into the air, and the man's eyes instinctively followed the weapon for a moment before they widened in realization. He pulled up his weapon and started to look back down at Roman, but only managed to catch a glimpse of a gloved fist before it met his nose.

Roman followed though with his punch then followed it up with an elbow to the chest before grabbing the man's head and slamming into Roman's rising knee. As the man staggered back he took a wild swing with his dagger, but Roman easily slapped it away with back of his hand before grabbing the man's wrist and twisting it around quickly. As the dagger fell from his hands Roman swept the man's legs out from under him and pulled him over Roman's shoulder by his arm, swinging him overhead before slamming him head first into the ground.

With that, the man's aura shattered and he laid groaning on the ground. Roman kicked up the dagger off the floor and caught it. "You know, you should really focus on the enemy and not the weapon." He drawled before walking over to where his cane had fallen to the floor. He tossed the dagger into an open crate before picking up Melodic Cudgel, and as he started back towards the man groaning on the floor he started his questioning.

"So it's clear you're not much of a fighter, and certainly not a hunter, because that was laughably pathetic. I mean, did you really think you'd kill someone like me with that?"

The man groaned once again before answering. "I know who you are Torchwick, you won't get shit out of me. They'll be sending a specialist after you soon enough."

The tip of a cane came down hard on one of the spy's hands, and a loud crunch followed. To the man's credit, he didn't cry out, just merely grunted in pain. Still, that wouldn't change the fact that his hand was now completely useless.

"Atlas then, eh? So how'd you idiots find out that I was alive?" Roman said with a small smirk.

"Some young team of hunters found one of our specialists and told her. Ironwood said it was worth checking out so here we are."

"Damn kids causing trouble, like usual. So much for not getting anything out of you then, I haven't even done much to you and your already singing."

The spy just laughed. "Not like it'll matter. You'll be dead within a week or two and that info wasn't important anyways."

Roman just shrugged, before putting a knee on the man's back and pulling the handle of his cane out, revealing the long metal wire of his grappling hook. "Well, guess that makes two of us then."

With that he wrapped the metal wire around the man's neck and pulled it tight, one hand around the main section of Melodic Cudgel, the other holding onto the handle.

The spy started to gurgle and make choking sounds as Roman slowly tightened the wire. "Oh C'mon, I'm trying to make this a clean ordeal so the good people of Sirenaka don't have to clean up too much, the least you could do is be quiet!"

 _ **Click!**_

Roman had barely finished speaking when a bright light flashed in his eyes for a moment. Looking down from his brief rant, he saw the soon-to-be corpse holding a scroll in his only functioning hand.

Roman quickly transferred the handle of his cane to his other hand and pulled back to keep the pressure on the spy's neck. Then, using his now free hand, he snatched the scroll out of the man's hand.

"Now now, trying to snap a picture for your friends? We can't have you ruining my disguise now can we?" Roman tsked as he waved the scroll about in emphasis.

"Sorry pal, not gunna happen. Nice try though." Roman frowned for a moment before continuing "Shouldn't you be dead by now? Usually people die by now."

Suddenly a pleasant female voice echoed out from the scroll. " _Message sent."_

Roman froze. Looking at the scroll he saw a picture of him in his kimono standing above the spy and strangling him with the grappling hook wire. The recipient was some random number with no title.

He must have accidentally thumbed the send button while he was holding the scroll.

It would take awhile for the message to get back to Atlas since the CCT was down and the spy that the message likely sent to would need to send it through a series of other spy's all the way back to Atlas, but that didn't change the fact that he had just ruined his disguise AND alerted Atlas that he was onto them, all because he had been careless in handling the scroll.

Roman's eye twitched.

The spy started making a strangled huffing sound that resembled laughing as he came to the same conclusion.

Roman snarled at the spy before stomping his foot onto the man's back and jerking sharply back on the grappling hook wire. With that, a brutal snapping sound echoed through the warehouse as the man's head lolled limply to the side.

Reeling in the wire and returning his cane to it's normal state, Roman started going through what had just happened in his head.

He had decided to toy around with the spy and strangle him instead of dealing with him quickly, and because of that the man had gotten a picture of him in his brand new disguise.

Then, on top of that, he had accidentally sent said picture to Atlas. He had done that, no one else was to blame. Now Atlas was aware that he was on to them and would likely push up any plans to send a specialist after him.

 _And_ his brand fucking new disguise, that he had _just_ gotten yesterday was now completely useless.

So basically, he had fucked up everything he had going for him in the span of approximately 2 minutes.

"...Son of a bitch."

* * *

 **Alright guys, long time no see! I've got a longer chapter for you today.**

 **I can't begin to explain how sorry I am for the delay, but it couldn't be helped. Right after the last chapter came out, I had to kick it into high gear and was pulling 19 hour work days, 7 days a week for nearly 6 weeks. Then immediately after that I had to spend 3 weeks fixing my roof with a couple of friends and family. I finished all that roughly 5 days ago and since then I've just been catching up on sleep and trying to get over a bit of writers block.**

 **But anyways, I'm back now. I don't foresee any more problems in the near future but just know that if I ever take a long time to update it's not because I've given up on this story. I have this story planned out, and I intend to finish it no matter what, so anytime it takes a long time to update it means I've run into a heap of problem in daily life. Well, that or I'm dead.**

 **Anyways, probably not the best chapter because part of it was written 2 months ago and so things don't always tend to flow great after a gap like that, but I hope you guys enjoy regardless.**


End file.
